Three people were injured Tuesday after the small plane they were in crashed into the northern portion of Prince William Sound, the U.S. Coast Guard said.
Four Good Samaritan boats rescued the occupants of the Cessna A185F Skywagon after it crashed into the water near Cascade Bay sometime before 2 p.m., the Coast Guard said in a statement.
One of the rescued occupants was unresponsive and was taken by boat to Whittier for emergency medical treatment, said Chief Petty Officer Charly Hengen, a spokeswoman for the Coast Guard’s 17th District.
The other two were medevaced to Providence Alaska Medical Center after they complained of “general pain,” Hengen said.
Hengen said she wasn’t aware of the occupants’ names, ages or sexes.
It was unknown as of Tuesday who was operating the flight or what its origin and intended destination were, she said.
Clint Johnson, a who heads the Alaska Region of the National Transportation Safety Board, said it was not immediately clear what may have contributed to the crash.
“At this point right now, it’s still an ongoing rescue,” Johnson said.
The NTSB was still putting together a plan Tuesday evening for getting to the crash site, Johnson said.
A Good Samaritan boat towed the wreckage back to a beach, though Hengen said she didn’t know its exact location.
The Alaska Air National Guard is also assisting on the scene, the Coast Guard said in the news release.
The crash comes just one day after a floatplane went down near Metlakatla, killing two people. A week before that, a midair collision between two flightseeing planes killed six people and injured 10 near Ketichikan.
Both crashes involved flights operated by Ketchikan-based Taquan Air, which has since suspended its operations.
This story has been edited to correct the number of people killed in the midair collision near Ketchikan. Six people died, not five.